Personalized Question and Answer System Output Based on Personality Traits

Abstract

Mechanisms, in a Question and Answer (QA) system, are provided for performing a personalized context based search of a corpus of information. A question is received, by the QA system, from a first user via a source device. An answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question are generated based on a corpus processed by the QA system. One or more personality traits associated with the first user are identified and a subset of the supplemental information is selected to present along with the answer to the first user based on the one or more personality traits associated with the first user. The answer and the subset of supplemental information are output to the first user via the source device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, in a data processing system implementing a Question and Answer (QA) system, for performing a personalized context based search of a corpus of information, comprising:
 receiving, by the QA system, from a first user via a source device, a question for processing by the QA system to generate an answer result;   generating, by the QA system, an answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question based on a corpus of information processed by the QA system;   identifying, by the QA system, one or more personality traits associated with the first user;   selecting, by the QA system, a subset of the supplemental information to present along with the answer to the first user based on the one or more personality traits associated with the first user; and   outputting, by the QA system, the answer and the subset of supplemental information to the first user via the source device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting a subset of the supplemental information to present along with the answer to the first user further comprises:
 correlating the one or more personality traits associated with the first user with pre-determined personality traits in a configuration data structure of the QA system to thereby generate at least one matched pre-determined personality traits;   identifying types of supplemental information associated with the at least one matched pre-determined personality traits; and   selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the identified types of supplemental information.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein identifying types of supplemental information associated with the at least one matched pre-determined personality traits comprises determining a level of detail of information to present as supplemental information with the answer. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more personality traits are identified in a first user profile associated with the first user, and wherein the one or more personality traits are personality traits identified in the first user profile that have a most dominant associated trait value. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the identified types of supplemental information comprises:
 weighting values associated with portions of the supplemental information based on whether the portions of the supplemental information align with the one or more personality traits of the first user; and   selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the weighted values associated with the portions of the supplemental information.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein outputting the answer and the supplemental information to the first user via the source device comprises outputting the answer and the supplemental information as one or more natural language statements. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating, by the QA system, the answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question based on a corpus of information processed by the QA system further comprises:
 retrieving, by the QA system, a first user profile associated with the first user, wherein the first user profile specifies a personality trait of the first user;   generating, by the QA system, one or more first candidate answers to the original question based on a search of the corpus of information;   identifying, by the QA system, one or more second users having a similar personality trait to the personality trait of the first user;   identifying, by the QA system, one or more similar questions, similar to that of the original question, previously submitted to the QA system by the one or more second users;   generating, by the QA system, one or more second candidate answers based on the one or more similar questions; and   generating, by the QA system, the answer based on the one or more first candidate answers and one or more second candidate answers.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more second users are second users logically connected to the first user by a common context, and wherein the corpus of electronic content comprises a portion of electronic content associated with the common context. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating one or more second candidate answers based on the one or more similar questions comprises:
 identifying one or more portions of the one or more similar questions that align with the personality trait of the first user; and   generating one or more supplemental queries based on the identified portions of the one or more similar questions.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein generating one or more second candidate answers based on the one or more similar questions further comprises:
 applying the one or more supplemental queries to the corpus to generate the one or more second candidate answers; and   generating a ranked listing of candidate answers comprising the one or more first candidate answers and the one or more second candidate answers.   
     
     
         11 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system implementing a Question and Answer (QA) system, causes the data processing system to:
 receive, by the QA system, from a first user via a source device, a question for processing by the QA system to generate an answer result;   generate, by the QA system, an answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question based on a corpus of information processed by the QA system;   identify, by the QA system, one or more personality traits associated with the first user;   select, by the QA system, a subset of the supplemental information to present along with the answer to the first user based on the one or more personality traits associated with the first user; and   output, by the QA system, the answer and the subset of supplemental information to the first user via the source device.   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to select a subset of the supplemental information to present along with the answer to the first user at least by:
 correlating the one or more personality traits associated with the first user with pre-determined personality traits in a configuration data structure of the QA system to thereby generate at least one matched pre-determined personality traits;   identifying types of supplemental information associated with the at least one matched pre-determined personality traits; and   selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the identified types of supplemental information.   
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein identifying types of supplemental information associated with the at least one matched pre-determined personality traits comprises determining a level of detail of information to present as supplemental information with the answer. 
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more personality traits are identified in a first user profile associated with the first user, and wherein the one or more personality traits are personality traits identified in the first user profile that have a most dominant associated trait value. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the identified types of supplemental information comprises:
 weighting values associated with portions of the supplemental information based on whether the portions of the supplemental information align with the one or more personality traits of the first user; and   selecting the subset of the supplemental information based on the weighted values associated with the portions of the supplemental information.   
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to output the answer and the supplemental information to the first user via the source device at least by outputting the answer and the supplemental information as one or more natural language statements. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to generate, by the QA system, the answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question based on a corpus of information processed by the QA system at least by:
 retrieving, by the QA system, a first user profile associated with the first user, wherein the first user profile specifies a personality trait of the first user;   generating, by the QA system, one or more first candidate answers to the original question based on a search of the corpus of information;   identifying, by the QA system, one or more second users having a similar personality trait to the personality trait of the first user;   identifying, by the QA system, one or more similar questions, similar to that of the original question, previously submitted to the QA system by the one or more second users;   generating, by the QA system, one or more second candidate answers based on the one or more similar questions; and   generating, by the QA system, the answer based on the one or more first candidate answers and one or more second candidate answers.   
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more second users are second users logically connected to the first user by a common context, and wherein the corpus of electronic content comprises a portion of electronic content associated with the common context. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , wherein generating one or more second candidate answers based on the one or more similar questions comprises:
 identifying one or more portions of the one or more similar questions that align with the personality trait of the first user; and   generating one or more supplemental queries based on the identified portions of the one or more similar questions.   
     
     
         20 . An apparatus comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to implement a Question and Answer (QA) system and perform the following operations:   receive, by the QA system, from a first user via a source device, a question for processing by the QA system to generate an answer result;   generate, by the QA system, an answer and supplemental information about the answer to the question based on a corpus of information processed by the QA system;   identify, by the QA system, one or more personality traits associated with the first user;   select, by the QA system, a subset of the supplemental information to present along with the answer to the first user based on the one or more personality traits associated with the first user; and   output, by the QA system, the answer and the subset of supplemental information to the first user via the source device.